Without reading anything about what I’m supposed to think/what the consensus of fans is, my season ranking goes like this:

3
4
1
5*
2

*would be higher if I didn’t completely hate what McNulty did.

My favorite parts of the whole series were Bunny Colvin taking matters into his own hands in season 3, Prez teaching in season 4 (with the payoff at the end of season 5), and the campaigning of Littlefinger. I’m sure there is more that I loved but those are the first three things that came to mind.

As for this being heralded as the best show ever, it probably was when it was released. But probably because other shows have been produced at extremely high quality in the interim based around similar structure, I didn’t feel like it was the best show I’ve ever seen. It was really good, yes, and likely inspired a lot of the similar dramas that made me feel like something I’ve seen before.

It was really interesting seeing a lot of actors I knew from other things like The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones, Black Panther, The Night Of, and Idris Elba.

Without reading anything about what I’m supposed to think/what the consensus of fans is, my season ranking goes like this:

3
4
1
5*
2

*would be higher if I didn’t completely hate what McNulty did.

My favorite parts of the whole series were Bunny Colvin taking matters into his own hands in season 3, Prez teaching in season 4 (with the payoff at the end of season 5), and the campaigning of Littlefinger. I’m sure there is more that I loved but those are the first three things that came to mind.

As for this being heralded as the best show ever, it probably was when it was released. But probably because other shows have been produced at extremely high quality in the interim based around similar structure, I didn’t feel like it was the best show I’ve ever seen. It was really good, yes, and likely inspired a lot of the similar dramas that made me feel like something I’ve seen before.

It was really interesting seeing a lot of actors I knew from other things like The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones, Black Panther, The Night Of, and Idris Elba.

Hot takes!

this is the furthest thing from a hot take because it is, in fact, 100% correct.

LM is also right though, 3/4 are the best and it just depends on whether you like the political storyline or the school storyline best - i think the kids' arc is better but season 3 also had hamsterdam and the resolution of the barksdale arc so i fully understand why some people like that one more.

personally i like 2 better than 5 because i felt 5 sort of went off the rails a bit with mcnulty's scheme (and i HATED that lester was such an enthusiastic participant, although yay bunk ), and the newspaper arc wasn't that great relative to what came before. i also related to ziggy in a real personal way when i first saw it 10+ years ago and had a bit of a "there but for the grace of god go i" sense while watching the last couple episodes, so emotionally that one stuck with me a little more.

2 vs. 5 is a tough call because 5 is actively irritating with very impressive highs (the finale!), whereas 2 is just kind of flat throughout but generally watchable. 1, 3 and 4 are all different shades of excellent.

Regarding season 1, it’s definitely the most raw. I was thinking during maybe season 4 and trying to remember when I stopped hearing all the “5-O!” callouts.

I think the thing that I liked about 5 was the resolution. It should Prez matured. It showed Colvin’s success. It showed Bubbles straightened out. Now a lot of that was right at the end, sure, but sometimes a good ending can make up for a lot and they really nailed it. They left me wanting more, but also satisfied.

I want to know what happened with characters later on, but I don’t want them to bring it back.

There are few TV characters I've loathed more than Ziggy. So it makes S2 a tougher watch. Of course, 2 also had Beadie Russell, who is up among my fav characters from the series.

I don't have the issue with S5 as many others seem to. Forgive me if I've made this comparison here before, but Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers was critiquing our addiction to violence in media, yet it traffics in that same imagery. Is it hypocritical, or needing to wallow in the glorification to make its point?

With the serial killer plotline, Simon was clearly trying to address sensationalism in the media (and pointed specifically towards print journalism here), and I think he knew very well that what McNulty does is over the top and strains credulity.

Regardless of whether that works for you, as Tourist and El Mel indicate above I think it's safe to say most felt that Simon did stick the landing with the actual end of the show, so I think it went out on a high note.

Actually, Simon has stated repatedly that it would be more probable to stage a serial killer as McNulty did than to have Bunny Colvin's Hamsterdam last as long as it did without nobody discovering it and leaking it to the press or the city hall (before silly Herc did anyway). If one is into the Hamsterdam plotline as most people are... it seems weird that the serial killer plot is discarded so quickly as being incredulous or not in line with what the show was about before. And it does go into the sensationalism theme of the newspaper media and the fact that real news are not being reported.

Nevertheless, I'm still on the fence on a lot of character aspects in season 5. Maybe it was due to the condensed running time, but I'd still like to see more inner struggle in McNulty and especially Lester with regards to that plotline. Most of their outrageous decisions were depicted for shock value purposes. McNulty's alcoholism seemed to inexplicably fade away by the end of the season, and the resolution with Beadie seemed like an afterthought. McNulty's wake was such a great scene that I tend to ignore all the circumstances that everyone chose to ignore that led to it (I mean, the guy is indirectly to be blamed for that copycat).

Still a great season and plenty of amazing moments (the final two scenes in Late Editions with Michael and Dukie are emotionally the most devastating ones for me in a series that had plenty of those), but certainly the most problematic one.